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NEW ORLEANS — As an unpaid volunteer assistant at Western Kentucky, Jim Harbaugh’s primary job was to recruit players for his dad, Hilltoppers head coach Jack Harbaugh.

However, the younger Harbaugh, then an NFL quarterback, also tried to influence his father’s coaching. His main focus: getting the old man to air it out when he visited campus from 1994-2001.

“I think the most entertaining thing was Jim trying to get his dad to throw the ball more,” said former Western Kentucky assistant David Elson, who eventually replaced Jack Harabugh at the school. “We literally ran the ball 90 to 95 percent of the time. Jim was always trying to get his dad to throw it more. That was always fun to watch. Jim being both a quarterback who loves to throw the ball and being so competitive. And then there was Jack having a three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust mentality.”

According to Elson, the son didn’t have much success mixing the forward pass into Western Kentucky’s run-run-run I-Bone attack (3 running backs, 1 tight end, 1 wide receiver). Jim Harbaugh often assisted at Western Kentucky football camps and was around during spring practice.

“He was smart enough to know he wasn’t going to change the offense,” Elson said. “But he was going to get a couple play-action post routes thrown in there a little bit more often. In the spring, I know they’d come out and get in some different formations and you’d say ‘OK, Jim’s been in the offensive meeting room.’ But as soon as Jim left, you didn’t see that stuff much any more.”

Jack Harbaugh, who spent seven seasons as a Michigan assistant under three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust legend Bo Schembechler, clearly received some flak from his youngest son. But the former quarterback – and his older brother, John – has adopted some of his dad’s fondness for power running.

Consider that for the first time in six years, both Super Bowl teams will have a 1,000-yard rusher: San Francisco’s Frank Gore (1,214) and Baltimore’s Ray Rice (1,143). In addition, this season’s Super Bowl champion will have a 1,000 yard running back for the first time since the 2007 Giants (Brandon Jacobs, 1,009).

In their seven combined seasons as NFL head coaches, the Harbaughs have had five teams rank among the top 10 in the league in rushing yards per game and they’ve never had a team finish lower than 14th.